1. Reviewing the scope and thematic focus of 100,000 publications on energy consumption, services and social aspects of climate change: A big data approach to demand-side mitigation
- Author
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Benjamin K. Sovacool, Leila Niamir, Pauline Scheelbeek, Tania Urmee, Max Callaghan, Helmut Haberl, Felix Creutzig, Mathilde Tessier, Charlie Wilson, Andrew Hook, Dominik Wiedenhofer, Aneeque Javaid, Jan C. Minx, William F. Lamb, Doris Virág, Zakia Afroz, Mark Andor, Kristian S. Nielsen, Anjali Ramakrishnan, Can Wan, Joyashree Roy, Lucia A. Reisch, Diana Ivanova, Andy Gouldson, Nadia Maïzi, Shreya Some, Chioma Daisy Onyige, Miklós Antal, Victor Court, Érika Mata, Maria J. Figueroa, Friederike C. Döbbe, Julio Díaz-José, Mahendra Sethi, Finn Müller-Hansen, Nandini Das, Steven Sorrell, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Technical University Berlin, Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, University of Sussex, Carleton University, College of Science - Health, Engineering and Education - Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia, Leibniz Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI), Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC), Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt [Klagenfurt, Austria], IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN), Jadavpur University, Tecnológico Nacional de México (TecNM), Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen] (CBS), MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd, University of Port Harcourt, Asian Institute of Technology [Pathumthani] (AIT), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Ahmedabad University, Centre de Mathématiques Appliquées (CMA), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), Tsinghua University [Beijing] (THU), Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia [Norwich] (UEA), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [Laxenburg] (IIASA), and Chaire MPDD
- Subjects
Knowledge management ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Community building ,Social norm ,Services ,Climate change ,010501 environmental sciences ,Epistemic community ,Collective action ,01 natural sciences ,Climate change mitigation ,Political science ,11. Sustainability ,Machine learning ,Demand ,Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,General Environmental Science ,Consumption (economics) ,Behavior ,[SHS.SOCIO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Sociology ,[SHS.STAT]Humanities and Social Sciences/Methods and statistics ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,business.industry ,IPCC ,[SPI.NRJ]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Electric power ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,13. Climate action ,Sustainability ,business ,Centrality ,[SDU.OTHER]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Other - Abstract
As current action remains insufficient to meet the goals of the Paris agreement let alone to stabilize the climate, there is increasing hope that solutions related to demand, services and social aspects of climate change mitigation can close the gap. However, given these topics are not investigated by a single epistemic community, the literature base underpinning the associated research continues to be undefined. Here, we aim to delineate a plausible body of literature capturing a comprehensive spectrum of demand, services and social aspects of climate change mitigation. As method we use a novel double-stacked expert—machine learning research architecture and expert evaluation to develop a typology and map key messages relevant for climate change mitigation within this body of literature. First, relying on the official key words provided to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by governments (across 17 queries), and on specific investigations of domain experts (27 queries), we identify 121 165 non-unique and 99 065 unique academic publications covering issues relevant for demand-side mitigation. Second, we identify a literature typology with four key clusters: policy, housing, mobility, and food/consumption. Third, we systematically extract key content-based insights finding that the housing literature emphasizes social and collective action, whereas the food/consumption literatures highlight behavioral change, but insights also demonstrate the dynamic relationship between behavioral change and social norms. All clusters point to the possibility of improved public health as a result of demand-side solutions. The centrality of the policy cluster suggests that political actions are what bring the different specific approaches together. Fourth, by mapping the underlying epistemic communities we find that researchers are already highly interconnected, glued together by common interests in sustainability and energy demand. We conclude by outlining avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration, synthetic analysis, community building, and by suggesting next steps for evaluating this body of literature.
- Published
- 2021